Friday, July 3, 2015

We all have a teacher we recall as being influential in our lives. I was fortunate to have several. One of the earliest ones I recall was my fourth grade teacher at W.T. Sampson school in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba - Ms. Viola Perrault.
At an impressionable age Ms. Perrault was one of those teachers who instilled excitement into the learning process. She gifted us with a desire to learn more. To this day I recall one of my favorite times of the school day was reading time. She introduced us to stories as varied as the fantastically whimsical Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory to the very poignant and grown-up tale of Flowers for Algernon. For myself and every student she ever taught the year-long class project of collecting, classifying, memorizing and displaying a sea shell collection was the highlight of our education.
Being that we lived in the tropical paradise of Guantanamo Bay we had a veritable treasure trove of opportunities and locations to seek out shells for our projects. Ms. Perrault even coordinated with the Navy to make use of their vessels to take us on field trips to beaches not normally accessible to us. Trying to sleep the night before a field trip across the bay was as pointless as trying to sleep on Christmas Eve - you fought it all night long.
Over the years the knowledge I learned that very special year has faded. Where once I could rattle off the scientific name of every sea shell I owned, the location in the world where they were found and a plethora of ancillary information, I can now recall just the common names of most shells. But where that knowledge may have faded over time, my love of the sea and marine life and the marine eco-system has not. Now some forty-three years after Ms. Perrault gave me the gift of love of sea-life I find myself once again digging in, researching, classifying, memorizing and building a shell collection to display, both actual and virtual, hopefully educating and passing on the love of the life aquatic to others.
Thank you Ms. Perrault for the gift you gave me and so many others those many years ago.